Contact or visit the Planning Information Services temporarily located on the fourth floor of the County Administration Building, 14741 Governor Oden Bowie Drive, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, 20772, telephone number 301-952-3208. In order to determine the current zoning of property, we need an accurate legal description of the property. A legal description is either the Lot and Block number and subdivision name or the Tax Map number and Grid and Parcel number. This information can be obtained from a deed or tax bill. Other information, such as the address or a site plan, is helpful for locating the property on the Zoning Map.

You can contact the resident planner assigned to your area of the county at the Community Planning Office or call 301-952-4225 to obtain information about ongoing planning projects and development activities. You can also contact the Development Review Division at 301-952-3530 to obtain information about becoming a party-of-record in pending development applications.

Once the zoning classification has been determined by Planning Information Services 301-952-3208, the classification will be in the Zoning Ordinance use table that will list the uses permitted in the zone. The zoning laws also establish certain minimum yard sizes (setbacks), height limitations, maximum percentage of lot coverage, off-street parking, green area, landscaping, and various other requirements.

Individual parcels of land may be subdivided if the new lots meet the requirements of the zone within which they are categorized. Each zone requires a certain minimum lot size, street frontage, and building line (yard/setback) requirement. If these requirements (together with those of the Subdivision Regulations) can be satisfied, new lots may be created through the subdivision process.

Under certain circumstances, subdivision plats may be approved for development served by private streets or the Department of Public Works and Transportation may authorize permit issuance for one-family detached dwellings, only, on lots served solely by private rights-of-way or easements. In all other instances, the County Executive must recommend and the County Council (by resolution) must approve authorization for the issuance of a building permit on a lot served only by a private right-of-way or easement. The County Permit Office of the Department of Environmental Resources 301-952-4828 should be contacted for further information on the procedure for seeking such authorization.

A 100-year floodplain is the area that has a one percent chance of being flooded in an amount equal to or greater than its average in any given year. The Environmental Planning Section has copies of Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA] maps and some individual watershed studies that depict the approximate location of the 100-year floodplain. The official source for floodplain information is the Prince George's County Department of Environmental Resources, they can be reached at 301-883-5777.